Sunday, August 5, 2012

Acer Iconia a200 First Impressions

Hello world! It is I your intrepid linux reporter! Today I am writing you from the exciting world of tablets! Yesterday I aged another year (like a fine single malt) and I treated myself with a tablet computer. After much debating I decided to go with the Acer Iconia a200 tablet. It has a 1280 x 800 screen (higher res than the iPad 1 and 2), a full size usb port (and micro usb slot as well), and a 10.1 screen. And best of all it was on sale!
So 24 hours with this tablet has left a fantastic first impression on me. The display is clear and bright, the Logitech k400 keyboard I am typing this on worked with zero user intervention, and it updated itself to Ice Cream Sandwich the second it connected to wifi. This was fantastic as I didn't have to go through the device setup twice. So this has been all flowers and butterflies so far. Where is the manure you say? Well the sound isn't fantastic, but let's be realistic; I don't see anyone carrying their tablet computers up by their head 80's style. The wierd little Acer circle menu is rather silly, but it doesn't matter too much as you don't really need to use it if you don't want to. Other than those minor gripes this is a great 10.1" tablet for the money. I will revist this little tablet at a later date. I intend to root it and possibly mod it with Ubuntu (or backtrack linux) and I will let you know how all that goes. To summarize...
Pros: Great 1280 xt 800 display, easy setup, and a full size usb with keyboard and mouse support.
Cons: Sound sucks and the Acer radial menu is rather redundant.